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Hayden caps season with 4A tennis crown

There was no way Tommy and Blake Hunter could both win the Class 4A state singles title, but Hayden found a way to give the entire team something to celebrate Saturday at Winfield.

Getting a one-two singles finish from sophomore Tommy Hunter and senior Blake and an 11th-place doubles finish from senior Josh Russell and junior Ben Heath, Hayden won its first team championship since 2005.

The five points Russell and Heath earned wound up being the Wildcats’ margin of victory in a 39-34 win over McPherson.

“The luck of the draw has a lot to do with it sometimes and we battled,” Hayden coach James Sandstrom said. “Our doubles had to grind out some matches and they ended up on the wrong side of a couple of tiebreakers, but they never gave up and they kept going.

“I'm happy for our seniors, I'm happy for our boys. They kind of knew they had a target on their back the whole time. We were going to be in contention and the doubles team had to have felt a lot of pressure because we knew what we had with Tommy and Blake and the doubles knew they were going to have to do something.”

As usual, the Hunters led the way for the Wildcats, with Tommy and Blake rolling to the singles finals before Tommy earned his second straight state title in a tough 6-2, 7-5 victory over Blake.

“Every time they played it was a battle back and forth,” Sandstrom said. “I know it’s an emotional grind as much as a physical grind when they play each other and they leave it all out there. The emotion after the match was real.”

Blake Hunter ended his Hayden career with a pair of second-place state finishes to go with a pair of third-place finishes and Saturday's team title.

And although Blake came up short in his bid for his first individual title, he was quick to give credit to Tommy.

“You can say that I had pressure, but he had pressure, too, especially after winning last year and being the defending champion,” Blake said. “That's hard to defend your title, and I give him all the credit.

“It was always a weird situation with us having to play each other just about every week when it got into the later part of the tennis season.”

Blake will play next year for Washburn, and Tommy said he will be his brother’s biggest fan.

“I'll try to make it to all his matches and be there to cheer for him and go visit,” Tommy Hunter said.

Sandstrom said Blake will go down as one of the greatest players in Hayden history, individual title or not.

“Absolutely,” Sandstrom said. “He’s a great tennis player, a great kid and he provided a lot of leadership for our team and his presence will last for quite a while. The impact that he had on the team will be felt for the next few years.”